Rick Santorum Supports Gay Rights … In Iran

Santorum, a former senator from
Pennsylvania, gave unsolicited testimony in favor of gay rights while
discussing conflicts in Iran.

“And I don't apologize for the
Iranian people being free for a long time and now they are under a
maleocracy that tramples the rights of women, tramples the rights of
gays, tramples the rights of people all throughout their society,”
Santorum said.

But later in the same Fox debate,
Santorum blasted three Republican contenders – Minnesota Rep. Michele
Bachmann, Texas Governor Rick Perry and Texas Rep. Ron Paul – for
what he saw as their weak opposition to gay marriage. Bachmann and
Perry have said states have the right to decide on the issue but
support an amendment to the Constitution that would define marriage
as a heterosexual union. Paul said he opposed marriages between
members of the same sex, then added that the government had no
business regulating marriage: “I mean, why should we have a license
to be married?”

“This is the 10th
Amendment run amok. Michele Bachmann says that she would go in and
fight health care being imposed by states – mandatory health [care]
– but she wouldn't fight marriage being imposed by the states.
That would be OK. We have Ron Paul saying, 'What the states want to
do. Whatever the states want to do under the 10th
Amendment is fine.' So, if the states want to pass polygamy, that's
fine. If the states want to impose sterilization, that's fine. No,
our country is based on morals laws, ladies and gentlemen. There are
things the states can't do. Abraham Lincoln said the states do not
have the right to do wrong. I respect the 10th Amendment.
But we are a nation that has values. We are a nation that was built
on a moral enterprise. And states don't have a right to tramp over
those because of the 10th Amendment,” Santorum said to
thunderous applause.

“You have to fight in each state, and
that is where I disagree with Rick Perry; I disagree with Michele
Bachmann,” he later stated.